Wolf Volcano eruption leaves its mark on Isabela

Earth from spaceWolf Volcano -- the highest volcano on the Galapagos Islands -- bears the telltale scars of its most recent eruption.

After a break of 33 years, Wolf Volcano sprang back to life on May 25 spewing a cloud of gas 15 kilometres in the air, and sending a stream of lava down its slopes.

This Terra satellite image, taken on 11 June, combines near-infrared, red, and green wavelengths showing the path of the eruption.

At the centre of our image is the seven-kilometre-wide, 700-metre-deep caldera.

Vegetation appears red, while streams of hot sulfur-rich lava flows pouring through a fissure, down eastern and south-eastern slopes of the appear charcoal black as they stream off to the right and into the sea.

Wolf volcano, which straddles the equator at the north end of the archipelago's largest island, Isabela, sits over a hot spot mantle plume extending deep below the Earth's crust.

The 1710-metre-high volcano is a shield volcano, so-called because they have relatively broad gentle slopes similar to a warrior's shield, which are formed as fresh lava flows spread out across earlier deposits.

The new eruption paves over deposits laid down during the last eruption in 1982.

When the eruption first started there were concerns for the safety of a rare species of pink iguana only found on Isabela Island, and for local populations of yellow iguanas and giant tortoises.

However, these species mostly live to the north and west of the summit, while the ash and lava from the eruption tended to flow east and southeast.

This false-colour image was taken by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite from a 725 kilometres above the Earth's surface.

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